Human Rights in Sierra Leone - Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking

The U.S. State Department's 2012 report on human trafficking identified Sierra Leone as “a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking.” Individuals are compelled to work in “prostitution, domestic servitude, and forced service or labor in artisanal diamond and granite mining, petty trading, portering, rockbreaking, street crime, and begging,” as well as “in the fishing and agriculture sectors.” Some persons also end up performing forced labor as a consequence of forced marriages. The report noted that “Sierra Leoneans voluntarily migrate to other West African countries, including Mauritania and Guinea, as well as to the Middle East and Europe, where they are subsequently subjected to forced labor and forced prostitution. Sierra Leone may also be a destination country for children trafficked from Nigeria, and possibly from The Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire, and Guinea, for forced begging, forced labor, and exploitation in prostitution.”

The State Department report further observed that while Sierra Leone's government “does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking,” it “is making significant efforts to do so,” although its efforts to enforce anti-trafficking laws actually decreased in 2011. Also, “wareness of existing anti-trafficking laws remained weak, courts convicted no trafficking offenders, and fewer suspects were charged with trafficking crimes compared with the previous year.”